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Understanding wireless antennas.

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When you talk to a true
wireless professional,

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you'll see that
they start picking

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nits between the difference
of a radio and an antenna.

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A lot of people think
they're the same thing.

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They see an antenna on a
device, and they go, oh well,

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that's the radio.

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That's what transmits and
receives all the communication,

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interprets it, and all
that kind of stuff.

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And the wireless
professional will

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be quick to stand up and go
no, no, no, no, no, that's

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the antenna.

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Inside of the
device is the radio

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which actually
interprets the signal

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and assembles the signal
that's received by the antenna

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and hands it off to some device
that does something with it.

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In the case of a walkie
talkie, that device

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might play the sound
out the speaker.

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Whenever I hear a
discussion like that,

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I always have to ask
the question, why--

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why does it matter
that we're really

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differentiating between
the antenna and the radio.

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And the reason I side with
the wireless professional

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is because it does matter.

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The antenna you can change,
the radio you can't.

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By changing the
antenna, you can change

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the direction or the flow
of that wireless signal.

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Now what we can do
is change the radio,

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but one thing that we've
seen over the years

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is that radios are being
added to our devices.

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Instead of just communicating
and sending and receiving

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with one radio and
one antenna, we now

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see multiple radios
and multiple antennas.

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That's called MIMO-- multiple
input, multiple output.

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We'll break that one down quite
a bit in an upcoming Nugget.

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For now, remember when you
combine these two things

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together-- you take one antenna
and match it up to one radio--

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you create something
known as a radio chain.

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And that describes the
full path of communication

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from generating the
signal to transmitting it

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up and radiating it
out into the air.

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Now over the last
couple of years,

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my boys have been growing up.

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My oldest boy is
now 7, and we've

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got him enrolled in
Little League baseball.

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I'm one of the
assistant coaches,

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and we played this
team once where

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they had this guy at first
base with this giant glove.

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Now it wasn't this
big, but when I saw it,

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I looked and I looked at
the head coach and I said,

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you can't do that.

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You can't have a giant
glove for the first baseman.

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And he goes, well,
actually, yes you can.

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In baseball, there's different
functions, and the glove

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that that first
baseman used might not

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be appropriate for somebody
playing at shortstop.

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It's that way simply
because the first baseman

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doesn't move too much.

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Just about every
ball goes to him

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because that's where
you get your force outs.

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And it's the same way
with wireless antennas.

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Most of the time, the
antennas that you use

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just do a general flow, like
water pouring out of a faucet.

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But there are also
times where you'll

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want to put your thumb
right over that hose

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and shoot that
signal as far as you

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can go in a single direction.

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That really describes
the two different types

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of antennas that are out
there in the wireless world.

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Now keep in mind there
are a lot more than two,

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but they all fall under
one of these umbrellas.

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They're either
omnidirectional, which

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means they radiate the signal
equally in all directions.

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And always remember
that a wireless antenna

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is three dimensional,
so I can't draw it,

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but this blob would rotate
up, down, left and right.

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It's a sphere.

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If I could draw a--

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I'm not even going to try.

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If I could draw a sphere around
the wireless access point,

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that's what an
omnidirectional antenna does.

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Now directional
antennas look like this.

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This is actually known
as a yagi antenna.

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It takes the energy from
the wireless access point

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and focuses is out.

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So instead of radiating in
a sphere around the device,

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it shoots that signal
hundreds of meters,

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potentially even
miles or kilometers,

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in a single direction.

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It's not uncommon for a
yagi intended to get some 40

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to even well beyond 100
miles out of the signal.

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The further you shoot it,
the thinner that signal is,

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and the harder it is to
match up in the line up

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the antenna on the other end.

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Remember, the
government regulates

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how much power can be sent
out the wireless device.

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Just like the water
company regulates how much

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pressure your hose has.

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How you choose to focus
that pressure really

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depends on your use case.

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For most people doing
internal wireless,

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meaning just providing
general wireless access,

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omnidirectional
is the way to go.

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However, there's a
ton of situations

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where you might be beaming
wireless between two buildings.

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Maybe those buildings are
a couple of miles apart.

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That's where a directional
antenna is a must.

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Now I've got to
tell you, if you're

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bored this Friday evening,
instead of just watching

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a movie or playing
some video games,

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go to Google and
type in build a WISP.

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Oh, it's some inspiring stuff.

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WISP stands for wireless
internet service provider.

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It's a growing
movement where people

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are buying space
and little radio

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towers all around
metropolitan areas,

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and they mount all kinds
of directional antennas

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that can shoot
wireless signals down

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to specific areas of
the metropolitan area.

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They then get some
subscribers that sign up,

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they mount a little
dish on those places,

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and deliver internet
access wirelessly

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for a fraction of the cost of
a normal internet connection.

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I'm telling you, after
reading a few of those things,

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you'll slam your fist
down at the table and go,

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I'm building a WISP.

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And you'll move to
some suburban area

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and realize it's harder to
build a WISP than you thought.

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Nonetheless, you now
know your antenna options

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when building a
wireless network.

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I hope this has been
informative for you,

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and I'd like to thank
you for viewing.